Daniel Laufer
Train of Thought
LP   AE022
January 2014, €15

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The Vinyl LP "Train of Thought" by Daniel Laufer (born 1975, lives in Berlin) is part of the exhibition with the same title at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany. "Train of Thought" is the 2nd in a series of artist record editions by Apparent Extent in cooperation with Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof.

Curator and Kunstverein director Anna Sabrina Schmid on "Train of Thought":

"Daniel Laufer’s spatial arrangements combine painting, video, performance, text and music. He uses historic movie-making techniques like filming through matte paintings to create video works distilling what is painted and what is real into a new cinematic space. Daniel Laufer transports these hybrid projections back into the exhibition space, enabling viewers to physically experience their construction.

Laufer’s narratives are associative and open. He is continually reflecting on ways of telling stories and making films. His open-ended tales often relate to certain literary motifs, fables or genres. Here at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, located in the former 1st class waiting lounge, Laufer shows an installation of paintings, objects and a two channel video installation revolving around a niche genre of literature called ‘armchair travel’ or ‘room travel’ inspired by the French author Xavier de Maistre, writer of "Voyage autour de ma chamber (Voyage Around My Room)" from 1795.

The Hungarian film critic Béla Balázs (1884 - 1949) described room travel as a state of mind in which one explores a space within the mind. Inside a train station – a transit space defined through high speeds and synchronisation – Laufer plays with the idea of the ‘room traveller’ who explores the quiet subjective slowness of armchair travel and inertia in movement."

Side A of the record features an audio version of Daniel Laufers video installation. The music for "Train of Thought" is based on musical meditations composed and performed live by organist Markus Hinz (Düsseldorf) and cellist Volker Zander (Köln) at St. Antonius, Düsseldorf. Side B provides a selection of these compositions based only on mental imagery and vague story outlines, recorded in the churches after hours during a late summer night. Simple digital field recording equipment was used in the two hour long session. Extracted from the film the reverb heavy soundtrack material reveal also urban noises like bypassing tram cars on the main street of Oberkassel, Düsseldorf, submitting dark sub-harmonic rumbling crescendos amplified and echoed through the corpus of the historistic church.

Tracklist:

A1 Train of Thought 18:55
B1 Old Melody 0:36
B2 Banisters 3:37
B3 The Salon 3:38
B4 Window 4:32
B5 The Near At Hand 8:17

"Train of Thought" was written, directed and edited by Daniel Laufer.
Narrators: Lucile Desamory, Muirgen Éléonore Gourgues, Hervé Humbert
Reading voice: Eve Bitoun

"Old Melody" is a traditional French shanty performed by Brunhilde Groult.

Additional music composed and performed by Markus Hinz and Volker Zander, recorded July 29, 2014 at St. Antonius, Düsseldorf.

Markus Hinz: Harmonium, Church Organ
Volker Zander: Turkish Tambur, Violoncello

This record is part of the exhibition "Daniel Laufer – Train of Thought" from November 23, 2014 until February 8, 2015 at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg.

Curated by Anna Sabrina Schmid.

Mastering by Nicholas Bussmann
Photography by Daniel Laufer
Graphic design by Volker Zander

Thanks to Atalya Laufer and Lorie Quint, Nina Köller and Jens Mentrup at KM gallery, Berlin.

Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, 2014
www.kvhbf.de

Available directly from Apparent Extent.